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Real life villains are just too easy to defeat sometimes. In our last week’s Super Sleuth Challenge we looked at a criminal who shouldn’t quit their day job. Sleuths were asked to guess which scenario was true. The answer is:

2. A drug dealer accidentally texted a police officer this question, “Do you want to buy some pot?” The police officer set up the meeting and confiscated four bags of marijuana. The dealer now faces drug charges. To read more about this story click here.

As they say, “the truth is stranger than fiction.” Is that ever the truth. In our stories we couldn’t pull off a villain blooper like this and still create the tension and believability we need to make readers turn pages.

Three Tips We Learn From The Text-Foiled Villain:

1. A believable villain’s skills must prove them dangerous to create conflict. If the villain is too easy to defeat, then the story will lose it’s tension, danger, and conflict. A villain that makes these simple types of mistakes are just too unbelievable for a fiction villain. This is one tip that I learned about from Susan May Warren in her book Deep & Wide: Advanced Fiction Techniques.

2. A believable villain will create almost insurmountable troubles for the hero/heroine. A book requires a battle between the villain and hero/heroine. If it is solved too easily than it isn’t book worthy. It will be too simple and not contain the complex content that readers crave.

3. A believable villain will recognize simple mistakes and not steal the hero/ heroine’s big victory by handing themselves over without a fight. The text-foiled villain made it so easy that the Police Officer didn’t really need to do much to win the victory in the end. A believable villain in a novel will do anything to make his crime statement grand or make him/herself difficult to catch.

About Michelle Lim

Author Michelle Lim is the Brainstorming/Huddle Coach with My Book Therapy Press and the Midwest Zone Director for American Christian Fiction Writers. Michelle’s romantic suspense is represented by Mary Keeley of Books & Such Literary Agency and has gained contest recognition in the Frasier, the Genesis, and the Phoenix Rattler. Michelle writes devotionals for The Christian Pulse Online Magazine and Putting On The New. Since her nonfiction book release, Idea Sparking: How To Brainstorm Conflict In Your Novel, through public speaking and online chats Michelle helps writers discover the revolutionary power of brainstorming to
bring new life to their stories.

Michelle Lim

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Michelle Lim

~Sparking Hope In The Face of Fear~

Author of Idea Sparking: How to Brainstorming Conflict in Your Novel and Romantic Suspense writer with three complete manuscripts that have earned recognition in The Rattler Contest 2012, the Genesis Contest in 2011 and the Frasier Contest in 2010. Michelle is the Brainstorm/Huddle Coach at My Book Therapy and serves as President of MN N.I.C.E., a local chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers.

Represented By Mary Keeley of Books & Such Literary

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Idea Sparking: How To Brainstorm Conflict In Your Novel ~ Now Available For US And International Purchase – Click on the Image Below

Michelle Lim has captured and applied all the powerful My Book Therapy techniques—and more— into this must-have book that guarantees an author the tools to create a riveting and unique story. This resource will be dog-eared, highlighted, and always within reach as I create my stories. ~Susan May Warren, best-selling, award-winning author and founder of My Book Therapy.